How did Room get started?

Submitted by woolf_virginia on Tue, 12/27/2011 - 21:09

Room was started in 1975 by a Vancouver collective of women who wanted to create a forum for female voices in the Canadian literary landscape. The magazine was originally called Room of One's Own, in honour of Virginia Woolf's assertion that, “[for a woman] it is necessary to have five hundred [pounds] a year and a room with a lock on the door if you are to write fiction or poetry.”

When the magazine began 40 years ago, Room originally supported primarily cisgender women writers. We have been and are continually growing and changing, and now envision Room as an open forum for women (cisgender and transgender), transgender men, Two-Spirit and nonbinary people of all backgrounds and identities.